Heartache in a Letter
by Baxin-Six
Summary: When Jamie starts acting different, it's up to big brother Danny to figure out what's wrong.


Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Bloods

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The rain pelted the ground around Jamie's feet as he took a seat on the bench in the now deserted park. Apparently he was the only one willing to walk around the Park on this cold and very rainy October afternoon.

He tugged his raincoat around himself a little tighter, ran a hand through his damp hair and then reached up and wiped a tear off his cheek before it could be washed away by the rain.

He felt his phone vibrate in his jacket pocket and sighed, he was late to Sunday night dinner with his family. He let the call go to voicemail and then pulled his phone out of his pocket, shielded it from the rain as best as he could and typed out a message to Danny that something came up and he wasn't going to make it to dinner tonight. He knew his brother would pass the message on to the rest of the family, but he also knew his brother would come looking for answers later.

He would deal with that later, in the mean time he got up from the bench and kept walking. The rain still pelting against his body relentlessly, but he couldn't feel it; all he could feel was the letter in his pocket.

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Danny flipped his phone shut. "That was Jamie." He lifted the phone slightly in the air as he glanced at his father at the end of the table. "He said that something came up and he's not going to make it tonight."

There was a moment of silence as Frank and Danny shared a look, and then Frank nodded his head. "Let's eat."

Erin reached for the potatoes and looked at her brother. "I talked to Jamie this morning, he didn't sound like himself."

"How so?" Henry asked as he scooped some meatloaf onto his plate and then handed the dish to Linda.

Erin shrugged and shook her head. "He just seemed off."

Danny smirked. "Sisterly intuition?"

She smiled. "Something like that."

Danny glanced at his father and caught the concerned look on his face. "I'll give the kid a call after dinner."

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An hour later Danny stood in his father's kitchen and watched the kids playing in the backyard, the rain had let up some and the boys were chasing Nikki around the yard with any bug they could find, much to Nikki's obvious annoyance.

His cell phone buzzed to life from its perch on the counter next to him, he grabbed it and flipped it open after seeing who it was.

"What's up, kid?"

"Um…" Jamie started, but immediately grew quiet.

"Is something wrong, Jamie?" Danny pushed away from the counter and started pacing back and forth in the kitchen.

Danny was about to ask again when his brother finally responded.

"Can you come get me?"

Danny's eyes grew wide, "Yeah, of course. Where are you?"

"Bryant Park."

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Danny explained the situation to Linda and his father and then immediately took off in his car towards the park, where he arrived nearly twenty minutes later.

He was about to dial his brothers phone number, but then saw him walking across the street towards him. "What the hell?" He muttered to himself and rolled down his window.

"Jamie?" His kid brother stopped in front of his window, hair plastered to his head and water dripping off his clothes.

The cold October wind blew through Danny's open window and he swore softly. "Just get in the car, kid." He rolled up his window and reached down to crank up the heat.

Jamie opened the passenger side door and leaned down, "I'm wet."

Danny rolled his eyes. "I can see that."

"I don't want to get your seat w-w-wet." Jamie said stuttering around the chill that ran through his body.

"I don't care about that, just get in."

Jamie nodded, got in the car and immediately shut the door.

Danny pulled away from the curb and into traffic. "You want to tell me why you've apparently been here all day." He glanced at his brother's shivering form and shook his head. "In the pouring rain, when it's forty degrees outside?"

Jamie shook his head. "Just take me home, Danny." He looked at his brother with pleading eyes. "Please."

Danny sighed as they came to a stop at a red light, he reached into the back seat and pulled an old blanket off the seat and handed it to his brother. "Wrap this around you."

"Thanks." Jamie mumbled.

The rest of the ride was silent as they pulled up to Jamie's apartment building fifteen minutes later.

"Thanks for the ride." Jamie took off the blanket and handed it to his brother.

"Tell me what's going on, Jamie." Danny took the blanket and threw it onto the backseat.

Jamie shook his head. "It's nothing."

"I'm not buying that."

"Fine." Jamie sighed in defeat. "But I'm freezing and I need to get out of these clothes, so if you want to know what's going on then you'll have to come inside."

Danny paused at the sudden anger in his brother's voice, and then nodded. "Just let me call Linda and let her know I'm going to be late."

He didn't receive an answer from his younger brother, just a groan as the younger man opened the car door, climbed out and the shut the door firmly behind him.

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Danny hung up the phone with his wife and sighed as he rubbed his forehead. He climbed out of the vehicle and walked towards the apartment building his brother had disappeared into a few minutes before.

He climbed the stairs to Jamie's apartment the whole time wondering what could be bothering his brother so much. He knocked and then turned the door handle to the younger man's apartment and pushed the door open slowly, "Jamie?" He called out into the darkened apartment beyond.

He flipped on the light switch and walked down the hallway, stopping in front of the bathroom door where the light was on and the shower was running.

He kept going into the kitchen, where he grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge and after turning a few more lights on made his way to the living room. He placed the bottles on the coffee table and then turned his attention to the apartment around him where there were pictures of the family everywhere.

Danny stopped at one of the pictures and smiled fondly, it was a picture of him, Joe and Jamie at Jamie's high school graduation. He moved on to the other pictures, pictures of their parents in younger years a picture of Jamie and Erin at his college graduation.

"What are you doing?"

Danny spun around swearing quietly, annoyed that the kid could sneak up on him so easily. "I told you I was staying."

Jamie nodded and came to stand next to his brother.

"You're looking a little better." Danny took in the appearance of his brother, dressed in sweat pants and a t-shirt. "You want to tell me why you were outside trying to catch pneumonia all afternoon?"

"I told you, it was nothing." Jamie turned and walked towards the living room window.

Danny took a deep breath, trying to contain the anger and frustration that was steadily building. "Damn it, kid." He walked over and placed a hand on his brothers shoulder, "Turn around and talk to me."

The younger man turned around and faced his older brother, his eyes red rimmed as he desperately tried to keep the tears at bay.

Danny's face immediately softened and his heart sank at the appearance of his brother. "What happened?"

"Um." Jamie started, but then stopped. He wiped a hand across his face and then shook his head. "It's stupid, Danny."

"This is not stupid." The older brother pointed to the tears still threatening to fall from the younger brother's eyes. "Now come over to the couch, sit down and tell me what happened so I can go kick someone's ass."

That drew a laugh from Jamie as he followed Danny to the couch and sat down.

"I don't think Sydney would appreciate that threat or her new fiancée." Jamie took a letter out of the pocket in his sweat pants and handed it to his brother.

After skimming through the letter Danny laid it down on the table."That's unbelievable." The anger was evident in his voice. "She wrote you a letter to tell you she was getting married?"

"Yeah." Jamie sighed and leaned back against the couch, he rubbed a hand across the ache in his forehead. "I thought I actually meant something to her…or maybe Jamie the lawyer meant something to her."

Danny shook his head. "Someday Jamie you're going to find someone that loves you for who you are, someone that will stand by you no matter what, someone that loves you for that dorky sense of humor that you have."

Jamie smiled and punched his brother in the shoulder.

"Ow." Danny mock winced. "Seriously though, kid. You're going to be fine, don't let this get to you." He patted his brother on the knee and stood up walking towards the kitchen.

"Are you leaving?"

Danny turned hearing the worry in his brother's voice. "No, I just need to make a phone call."

"Oh, to Linda?" Jamie asked, glad that his older brother was going to stick around for a little while longer. He didn't get to talk to the older man like this very often and he cherished every second of it.

"No, I'm calling Erin." He heard his brother call out from the direction of the kitchen.

"Why?" Jamie asked confused.

"Because…" He heard a cabinet door shut; obviously his brother was hunting for snacks in his kitchen. "I'm going to have her buy a ticket to Paris so she can kick Syd's butt."

Jamie's eyes grew wide as he scrambled off the couch. "Danny!"


End file.
